Negan!

Negan!

This week we’ll take a break and talk about The Walking Dead‘s season premiere! If you’re reading this blog post and not familiar with the Walking Dead series, you need to turn around and watch all 6 seasons because it’s worth it. (This is not a sponsored message)

Today (October 23, 2016), season 7 just came out and the answer to the question on everyone’s mind is finally revealed. I have not yet viewed the episode but instead want to make a prediction based on the evidence.

I’m a huge fan of cinematic storytelling. One thing you always notice about a good film is that character deaths come at a heavy cost. Tons of effort are put into character development, many of which help build an emotional connection with the audience. The best films always leave a trail, a foretelling of whats to come. The Walking Dead has used this technique before to great effect.

Among all the main character deaths, Tyreese Williams stood out as one of the most well built. Tyreese had a perculiar start in the apocalypse, having been sheltered from violence for most of its beginning. He adapted to survival in the hostile world when he realized that humanity had left most of the living and the dead. While he may have not been in the spotlight as often as Rick Grimes, he was certainly a strong personality.

Before he died, Tyreese had a close encounter with death, which left him in shock. We follow his disrupted thoughts in flashes while the crew travelled in a car. Among the many things they passed, the director showed a low angle shot with a grandfather clock on the asphalt. Immediately, I knew he was going to die.

With this logic, I predict that Glenn (One of the strongest and most admired character) is the victim of Negan’s club. This is also in line with the comic. Although the show had often been deviating from the same deaths as the written issues, I do not believe this is one of those cases. I believe that Glenn is the victim of Lucille (Negan’s apocalyptic baseball bat) because like Tyreese, we have a foretelling.

Firstly, the show had demonstrated a fake death scene with Glenn trapped under a garbage bin. Secondly, the possibility of a complete family is unlikely in an apocalypse. I deduced this instantaneously because the directors have to change the entire story to fit in Glenn and Maggie’s family. Good writing will not exclude elements, therefore Glenn, Maggie and their child will basically take over the show. Much like how Lori had to die when Rick and her child was born, the show simply cannot facilitate too many directions in their story. Thirdly, there are dozens of videos that can help explain how the visuals directed the killing at Glenn. Lastly, my instincts tell me that this has to be Glenn’s time. Glenn was a character from season 1, every fan would have grown to know him. His character developed form a savvy solo survivor to a caring and hardworking individual in the group. His death will shock everyone and will make for the twist that the show is going to ride on.

It is sad to know that Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) and Glenn (Steven Yeun) were the victims. Although I did not expect two deaths to come, the toning down of both these characters is now more obvious to me. While I predicted that Glenn would have died, Abraham’s story had also seemingly come to an end. His suicidal acts and wondering mind was a potent combination for a death.

Deadline has an excellent explanation of what happened and why. The web post talks about the dramatic direction bringing the show back into the top of showtime.

Next Week:

For now, I will be in grieve and next week we will resume with our narrative.